Related papers: Correlation effects during liquid infiltration int…
We study how the dynamics of a drying front propagating through a porous medium are affected by small-scale correlations in material properties. For this, we first present drying experiments in micro-fluidic micro-models of porous media.…
In the field of nanoconfined fluids, there are striking examples of deformation/transport coupling in which mechanical solicitation of the confining host and dynamics of the confined fluid impact each other. While this intriguing behavior…
Immiscible fluid displacement in porous media is fundamental for many environmental processes, including infiltration of water in soils, groundwater remediation, enhanced recovery of hydrocarbons and carbon geosequestration. Microstructural…
It has been known for a long time that the adsorption and condensation of gas cause elastic deformation of the porous matrix. The reversible formation of an adsorbed film, which precedes capillary condensation, results in an extension of…
We present experimental and theoretical results on intrusion-extrusion cycles of water in hydrophobic mesoporous materials, characterized by independent cylindrical pores. The intrusion, which takes place above the bulk saturation pressure,…
We study the effect of spatially-correlated heterogeneity on isothermal drying of porous media. We combine a minimal pore-scale model with microfluidic experiments with the same pore geometry. Our simulated drying behavior compare favorably…
Liquid adsorption in nanoporous materials induces their deformation due to strong capillary forces. The linear relationship between the liquid pressure and the solid strain (pore-load modulus) provides an experimental technique to determine…
Hydration of hydrophobic solutes in water is the cause of different phenomena, including the hydrophobic heat-capacity anomaly, which are not yet fully understood. Because of its topicality, there has recently been growing interest in the…
Flows through porous media can carry suspended and dissolved materials. These sediments may deposit inside the pore-space and alter its geometry. In turn, the changing pore structure modifies the preferential flow paths, resulting in a…
A physical mechanism has been proposed to describe the formation of a stable state of a nonwetting liquid after filling of a porous medium at an increased pressure with the subsequent reduction of the overpressure to zero. It has been shown…
Liquid transport through nanopore is central into many applications, from water purification to biosensing or energy harvesting. Ultimately thin nanopores are of major interest in these applications to increase driving potential and reduce…
We present a theoretical study of the phase diagram and the structure of a fluid adsorbed in high-porosity aerogels by means of an integral-equation approach combined with the replica formalism. To simulate a realistic gel environment, we…
Theoretical and experimental investigations of water vapor interaction with porous materials are carried out both at the macro level and at the micro level. At the macro level, the influence of the arrangement structure of individual pores…
The forced intrusion of water in hydrophobic nanoporous pulverulent material is of interest for quick storage of energy. With nanometric pores the energy storage capacity is controlled by interfacial phenomena. With subnanometric pores, we…
Nanoscopic pores are used in various systems to attract nanoparticles. In general the behaviour is a result of two types of interactions: the material specific affinity and the solvent-mediated influence also called the depletion force. The…
We apply a phenomenological theory of polar liquids to calculate the interaction energy between two plane surfaces at nm-distances. We show that depending on the properties of the surface-liquid interfaces, the interacting surfaces induce…
Vapor adsorption experiments are widely used to assess pore size distributions, but the large hysteresis sometimes observed between sorption and desorption isotherms remains difficult to interpret. Such hysteresis is influenced pore network…
A hydrophobic constriction site can act as an efficient barrier to ion and water permeation if its diameter is less than the diameter of an ion's first hydration shell. This hydrophobic gating mechanism is thought to operate in a number of…
Hydrophobic interactions provide driving forces for protein folding, membrane formation, and oil-water separation. Motivated by information theory, the poorly understood nonpolar solute interactions in water are investigated. A simple…
The mechanism of the collapse of the superhydrophobic state is elucidated for submerged nanoscale textures forming a three-dimensional interconnected vapor domain. This key issue for the design of nanotextures poses significant simulation…